Introduction

[ Note: still working on the photos.  This review will be updated as soon as they are ready. ] 

Portraits resulting from the use of ringlights always amaze me.  It would produce a flat, shadowless light with a “ring-like” catchlights on the subjects eyes.  Most righlight portraits I saw aren’t using diffused lights, so there’s a little touch of strong contrast but not as strong as the ones from on-camera flash.  Shadows is diffused and almost non-existent because the light “wraps around” the subject making the shadow fall almost exaclty behind the subject.

Outside of the astronomical prices of commercially-available ringlights, the only way to achieve the effect of a ringlight is to create one yourself from raw materials that can be bought at your local hardware store.  And I’ve seen people do a great job create one and actually use it. 

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I just received my very own ABR800 Ringlight.  I have long been a fan of Paul Buff’s line of affordable-yet-full-featured studio lights, and this one lives up to that name.  I am so psyched by this product that I am writing a full review to be published this coming weekend.  Yes, you read it right: Not “in the next few weeks,” not “sometime this year,” not “someday-when-my-butt-is-not-glued-to-my-Wii.”  If you are looking for a new creative angle to your photography and cannot bring yourself to make the ringlight out of materials bought from the Home Depot and be limited to ISO400 and slow shutter speeds, get out your credit card and hop on to AlienBees’s website.

Now, I know I said this is a great product…but not without its faults.  In fact, I was horrified when I saw the camera mount.  Yes, HORRIFIED.  I blurted out “Yikes!” as I was examining it.  I will expound on this on my full review that’s coming up in the next four days.  Stay tuned.

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A Nikon 70-210/4AF lens. 

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A new tool I discovered through Lifehacker.  Sort of limited and clunky for now…but shows a lot of promise.  Here’s one I created.

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Last night, I have downloaded the game demo to get a feel of how it plays.  I admit that I was kind of intrigued by the game since it has been announced because it’s touted to have a radical departure from the previous Def Jam incarnations…which I’m not too crazy about.

When I saw the first gameplay video a few months ago, I was impressed by how the game looks (albeit the character facial expression is always lifeless despite the detail)…but was let down on how the game moves…to take a quote from the movie “Invincible”: I’ve seen glaciers move faster.

Now with the actual game in hand, I have nothing really positive to say about it apart from the nice graphics and somewhat-consistent framerate:

• The EA trademark long loading times (to think this is loading from the HDD, i can’t imagine how it would be loading from a DVD!)
• The characters still move stupid slow.
• Combos are absent.  Nada.  Zilch. 
• Next-to-impossible throw maneuvers.  You have the simple throw wherein you use the right analog stick and then there’s throwdowns, where you use the analog stick + the D-pad.  What? 
• Unintuitive blocking system.  
• The “fighting with the music beat” and music mixing is utterly POINTLESS.  I couldn’t care less about throw my opponent in the exact beat; I just want to beat the crap out of him.  And DJ mix move?  Wow, so underwhelming.
• The deal breaker for me is the off-the-wall button configuration for punches or kicks.  Note that it’s not punch AND kicks.  you press the X,Y,A,B to do upper right/left strike and lower right/left strike respectively…depending on the character, it would either punch or kick.  Big Boi doesn’t have a “kick” button.  T.I. is all kicks.  Now to do a super stike or kick…you use the right analog stick!  Holy crap, talk about convulted button configuration.  I needed to pause the game several times to review the button config.

I really wanted to like this game.  It’s just horrible.

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• Assassin’s Creed.  From the creative minds behind Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time. 
• Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  From Naughty Dog, creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jax & Daxter franchise.  I’m not too wild about either games, but after seeing the trailer of their new PS3-exclusive the other day, it reminded me so much of Flashback, one of the greatest games ever made.  And if the trailer that was shown is actual game footage, this would be the only game I know (outside of Metal Gear Solid) where the developers appied realistic detail on facial expressions of its characters.
• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.  Never played the first one, but when I played the demo, I was hooked.  IMO, its graphics and animation are a lot better than both Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Las Vegas (both using the overrated Unreal Engine 3 graphics engine)
• Resident Evil 5/Resident Evil Wii.  I think I don’t have to explain this.
• Metal Gear Solid 4.  Two words: Hideo Kojima
• NBA Street Homecourt.  I have a little reservation about this because it’s an EA game, but seeing the game footage, this might be the first basketball video game that I’m looking forwared to.
• Half Life 2: Episode 2.  I will probably need to upgrade my PC when this game comes out

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I’m currently reading through “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami. I bought this book after watching the movie “Tony Takitani” (based on one of the author’s short stories) which was recommended by an acquaintance who’s got an eccentric movie/book tastes. I liked the movie so I started looking for books that he has written; and through a link from Table of Malcontents, this book happens to be one of his best.

So far, I am almost through book one (the novel is divided into three books) and I like it so far. My favorite part:

“…in the company I work for, they won’t let you say anybody’s ‘bald.’ You have to say ‘men with a thinning problem.’ ‘Bald’ is discriminatory language. I was joking around once and suggested ‘gentlemen who are follically challenged,’ and boy, did they get mad.”

“Follically challenged.” Priceless.

The person who recommended the movie actually suggested “Kafka on the Shore” instead. I have reservations on reading a book that contains a word in its title that needs to be googled. Maybe once I finish this one.

Update: I just finished reading this looong novel.  Great read.  No doubt one of the best novels I’ve read in a long while.  I’m looking forward to reading a lot (if not all) of Murakami’s writings. 

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To those Mac users who don’t know what QuickSilver is, kindly send me your beloved Mac and kill yourself.

For the rest of you boring PC people who refuse to upgrade to Vista because if it’s overall tackiness, you now have an equally-awesome tool: Launchy. 

And it’s free, too.  Imagine that.

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